Wright case goes to jury after graphic testimony

Deliberations to resume Wednesday

ANDREW TILGHMAN, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle |
March 2, 2004

The jury hearing the case of Susan Wright, the former topless dancer charged with killing her husband by stabbing him 193 times, will continue to decide Wright's fate Wednesday after almost two hours of deliberations today failed to produce a verdict.

The case went to the jury after prosecutors showed Wright a picture of the victim's mutilated penis and accused her of torturing him.

"What you did was nick at it," Assistant District Attorney Kelly Siegler said.

"That's not a stablike (wound)," Siegler said, standing over Wright and making a downward thrusting motion. "That's a slice, isn't it?"

"No, I didn't slice and nick at him," Wright said, raising her voice, sobbing and turning away from the autopsy photograph. "I did not slice at him. I did not."

The defense rested today after three hours of cross-examination by Siegler, and the case went to the jury this afternoon after closing arguments.

During her closing, Siegler told the jury that the defense had not made a strong case.

She also noted that Wright's lawyers did not call a mental health professional to the stand to provide testimony supporting their contention that Wright suffered a total mental breakdown on the night she killed her husband.

"You're left with the word of Susan Lucille Wright: the word of a card-carrying, obvious, no-doubt-about-it, caught-redhanded, confirmed, documented liar," Siegler said.

She also contended that Wright's frequent shows of emotion during the trial were deliberate efforts to influence the jury.

"She cries when you're in the room and she stops when you leave," Siegler told jurors.

Defense attorney Neal Davis reminded jurors of testimony by Wright and others that Jeffrey Wright was abusive toward his wife.

In her cross-examination earlier today of the former stripper and mother of two, Siegler accused Wright of murdering her husband in their northwest Harris County home on Jan. 13, 2003, burying him in their back yard, and lying to conceal the death. Siegler contends Wright seduced 34-year-old Jeffrey Wright, tied him to their bed with bathrobe sashes and ties, and murdered him in a scheme to collect on his $200,000 life insurance policy.

Suggesting Wright has been crying on cue throughout the trial, Siegler asked the defendant how she could think no one would notice when she turned off the tears as soon as the jury left the room so she could "chit-chat" with her lawyers and sister.

Wright said she covered her face and tried to compose herself because the judge ordered her to.

"I haven't cried on cue once," Wright protested. "I don't see how someone could not cry during this."

Wright was less timid today than when she questioned Monday by her own lawyers. This morning, she cried less and sounded frustrated by the prosecutor's pointed questions.

"That's the truth. I'm sorry if you don't like it," Wright said at one point.

Wright maintained that she killed her husband in self-defense only after he raped her and threatened her with a knife. She wrestled the knife away from him and stabbed him out of fear, she said.

Wright contended that her weeklong cover-up -- when she bleached and repainted the house and told people that her husband had disappeared after a fight -- was a symptom of trauma-induced delusions that he was still alive even though he was buried in their backyard.

"It was cleaning," said Wright. "I thought it was dirt and I had to make the house clean because Jeff was going to be mad."

"I wasn't lying, because I believed Jeff was going to be coming back," Wright testified. "I still thought Jeff was alive and he was going to kill me."

Siegler asked Wright how many times she had rehearsed her testimony.

"Have you ever read anything about battered wife syndrome since you've been charged with murder?" the prosecutor asked.

"No," Wright said.

"Nothing?" Siegler responded."You never picked up a book? ... You even have the rhythm down. It's like cadence: 'He beat me until he wasn't angry any more.'"